When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. OurPrivacy Noticeexplains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Read More

Related Articles

However, Katie claims they occurred due to an error in the housing benefit system and because of the lack of information given to the Jobcentre and herself when she swapped to Universal Credit.

Katie, who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in March, recalled: “The rent arrears started in January 2018, when I received a letter to say that housing benefit had overpaid Sanctuary Housing by £1,200.

“It stated they were going to collect the overpayment each month by taking £100 from my entitlement. I asked for it to be reduced to £5 because I was on reduced working hours due to the loss of my daughter, which was agreed to.

“Due to illness which prevented me from working I was put on full housing benefit, and in October 2018 we had to go on Universal Credit.”

(Image: Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire)

As they would have had to wait five weeks for their first payment, Katie says it was agreed at the Jobcentre they could have half then and the other half at a later time.

The following month they received their first Universal Credit payment of around £800 for the month.

Katie recalled: “We were never told our rent was in this payment. Then we received a letter in the post from Sanctuary Housing to say we owed just over £2,000 in rent.

“We were gobsmacked to be told housing benefit had been deducting £100 each month for the overpayments. We also found out our housing benefit had stopped when we went on to Universal Credit, and Universal Credit had paid us the rent and not to Sanctuary Housing like we had asked.”

Katie says she rejected for discretionary housing payments due to the rent arrears as well as a repayment plans.

“We were told if we didn’t pay the whole lot off we were out,” she said. “I felt like a failure and a bad mum because I had lost our family home. There was nothing I could I do but cry.”

Katie and her family were evicted at the end of February having searched unsuccessful for a private landlord. After staying with her brother in Cheshire she was housed in different hotels back in Torquay and then a cottage temporarily in Paignton by Torbay Council.

Video Loading

Video Unavailable

Click to playTap to play

The video will start in8Cancel

Play now

However, she alleged they were given two weeks’ notice to find accommodation after being told by Torbay Council it no longer had a care of duty to help them.

With nowhere else to go, Katie says her daughter had to temporarily live back with her father in Torquay.

Read More

Related Articles

Katie said: “I was devastated. My teenage daughter not being around me caused my anxiety to spiral, but I knew it was the only way. It left me and my partner on the streets and split us up as a family.

“I was so angry they could do this to us; I was born and breed in Devon and I was being treated like this.

“We had been given a budget of £555 rent allowance for a two-bed property, but nearly all properties was £650 plus. It was impossible to find a home but we kept at it.”

After four weeks of sleeping between family and friends, and on the streets, Katie sought the help of their local MP and social media.

It prompted a team leader of housing options to overturned the decision, and Katie and her partner were reunited with her daughter and were placed back into a hotel.

However, five weeks’ late they are still in the hotel in one room, and Katie says their situation has now become desperate.

'I am pleading for help'

She said: “We are truly grateful to be given accommodation, but we are struggling being in one room and are at breaking point.

"My daughter and partner are sharing a room which is wrong; we are living off takeaways as there are no cooking facilities which is making our health worse; our room hasn’t been cleaned since we’ve arrived, and my daughter is getting detentions from school as she can’t do her online homework as we don’t have the internet.”

“This situation is taking its toll on us as a family so I am pleading for help for me and my family.

“All we are asking for is help to be put on Devon Home Choice to get a better chance of an affordable settled home for us, to be treated fairly, and for the local council to hold their hands up and admit that the system is at fault.

“We would also like them to compensate us for the last seven months' of our lives that’s been torture for us as a family and is still ongoing to this day.”

Sanctuary Housing's response

In response, Sanctuary Housing said they had tried to help Katie, but eventually had no option but to evict her from the property as her rent arrears continued to rise.

A spokesperson for the association said: "Eviction is always a last resort.

"We have great sympathy for Ms French’s situation and worked with her over many months to try to help her sustain her tenancy, making multiple home visits, offering to refer her to local advice agencies and clarifying that Universal Credit is a single benefit from which rent must be paid.

"Sadly, the rent arrears continued to rise which meant we were left with no other option than to take legal action and make the property available to another family.”

A Torbay Council spokesperson said: “We cannot comment on individual cases but what we can say is that we do have a process to follow which includes taking a homeless application and making a decision in line with legislation.

"We are committed to ensuring the needs of individuals are met and will continue to support them in line with our statutory duties and until they find suitable alternative accommodation."